Parents warned over food additives

Parents have been warned of the dangers of artificial additives in drinks, sweets and processed foods after new evidence emerged about a possible link to hyperactive behaviour in children.

The Government's food advisers immediately hardened their dietary advice after the biggest study of its kind to date found normal children given a cocktail of additives behaved impulsively and lost concentration.

But food safety campaigners urged the Government to go further and put legal limits on additives in food.

Psychology Professor Jim Stevenson, who led the Food Standards Agency (FSA)-commissioned study, said: "We now have clear evidence that mixtures of certain food colours and benzoate preservative can adversely influence the behaviour of children.

"There is some previous evidence that some children with behavioural disorders could benefit from the removal of certain food colours from their diet.

"We have now shown that for a large group of children in the general population, consumption of certain mixtures of artificial food colours and benzoate preservative can influence their hyperactive behaviour.

"However, parents should not think that simply taking these additives out of food will prevent all hyperactive disorders.

"We know that many other influences are at work but this at least is one a child can avoid."

Following publication of the report, the FSA urged parents of children with hyperactive disorders to stop giving them food containing the artificial colours used in the tests.

A spokesman for campaign group The Food Commission said food manufacturers should "clean up their act" by voluntarily removing the additives from their products.